Mary Roach Popular Books
Mary Roach Biography & Facts
Mary Roach (born March 20, 1959) is an American author specializing in popular science and humor. She has published seven New York Times bestsellers: Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers (2003), Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife (2005), Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex (2008), Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void (2010), Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal (2013), Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War (2016), and Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law (2021). Early life and education Mary Roach was born in Hanover, New Hampshire Her family moved to Etna, a village within the town of Hanover, and Roach attended Hanover High School and received a bachelor's degree in psychology from Wesleyan University in 1981. Career After college, Roach moved to San Francisco, California, and spent a few years working as a freelance copy editor. Her writing career began in the public affairs office of the San Francisco Zoological Society, producing press releases on topics such as wart surgery on elephants. On her days off from the SFZS, she wrote freelance articles for San Francisco Chronicle's Sunday magazine, Image. She has written essays and feature articles for such publications as Vogue, GQ, The New York Times Magazine, Discover Magazine, National Geographic, Outside Magazine, and Wired as well as columns for Salon.com, In Health ("Stitches"), Reader's Digest ("My Planet"), and Sports Illustrated for Women ("The Slightly Wider World of Sports"), and Inc.com. From 1996 to 2005, Roach was part of "the Grotto", a San Francisco-based project and community of working writers and filmmakers. It was in this community that Roach got the push she needed to break into book writing. While being interviewed by Alex C. Telander of BookBanter, Roach answered the question of how she got started on her first book: A few of us every year [from the Grotto] would make predictions for other people, where they'll be in a year. So someone made the prediction that, 'Mary will have a book contract.' I forgot about it and when October came around I thought, I have three months to pull together a book proposal and have a book contract. This is what literally lit the fire under my butt. Although Roach writes primarily about science, she never intended to make it her career. Roach stated in an interview with TheVerge.com, when asked what exactly got her hooked on writing about science, "To be honest, it turned out that science stories were always, consistently, the most interesting stories I was assigned to cover. I didn't plan it like this, and I don't have a formal background in science, or any education in science journalism." Roach has appeared on numerous television and radio programs including The Daily Show,The Colbert Report, Coast to Coast AM, NPR's "Fresh Air", and C-SPAN2 BookTV "In Depth." Her 2009 TED talk "Ten Things You Didn't Know About Orgasm", made the organization's list of its most popular talks of all time. Roach reviews books for The New York Times and was the guest editor of the Best American Science and Nature Writing 2011 edition. She also serves as a member of the Mars Institute's Advisory Board, as an ambassador for Mars One and an advisor for Orion magazine. She has been an Osher Fellow at the San Francisco Exploratorium and has served on the Usage Panel of the American Heritage Dictionary. Roach currently resides in Oakland, California, where she continues to write. Awards and recognition Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers was a New York Times Bestseller, a 2003 Barnes & Noble "Discover Great New Writers" pick, and one of Entertainment Weekly's "Best Books of 2003." The book has been translated into at least 17 languages, including Hungarian (Hullamerev) and Lithuanian (Negyvėliai). Stiff was also selected for the Washington State University Common Reading Program in 2008–2009. Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife, a New York Times Bestseller, was listed as a New York Times Notable Books pick in 2005. Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex, was chosen as the New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice, was among The Boston Globe's Top 5 Science Books, and was listed as a bestseller in several other publications. In 2011, Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void, was chosen as the book of the year for the seventh annual "One City One Book: San Francisco Reads" literary event program. Packing for Mars was also sixth on the New York Times Bestseller list. Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal was also a New York Times Bestseller and on the shortlist for the 2014 Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books. Roach was the recipient of the Harvard Secular Society's Rushdie Award in 2012 for her outstanding lifetime achievement in cultural humanism. The same year, she received a Special Citation in scientific inquiry from Maximum Fun. Her article on earthquake-proof bamboo houses, "The Bamboo Solution", took the American Engineering Societies Engineering Journalism Award in the general interest magazine category in 1996. In 1995, Roach's article "How to Win at Germ Warfare" was a National Magazine Award finalist. Works Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers (2003, W. W. Norton & Company; ISBN 0-393-32482-6 OCLC 55230887) Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife (2005, W. W. Norton & Company; ISBN 0-393-32912-7 OCLC 76884889) Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex (2008, W. W. Norton & Company; ISBN 978-0-393-06464-3 OCLC 930702693) Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void (2010, W. W. Norton & Company; ISBN 978-0-393-06847-4 OCLC 1291915151) The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2011 (editor, 2010, Mariner Books) Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal (2013, W. W. Norton & Company; ISBN 978-0393081572 OCLC 811599508) My Planet: Finding Humor in the Oddest Places (2013, Penguin Publishing; ISBN 978-1621450719 OCLC 822892403) Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War (2016, W. W. Norton & Company; ISBN 978-0-393-24544-8 OCLC 953133374) Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law (2021, W. W. Norton & Company; ISBN 978-1-324-00193-5 OCLC 1233265880) References External links Official website Appearances on C-SPAN Interview by Adam Savage. Discover the Mary Roach popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Mary Roach books.
Best Seller Mary Roach Books of 2024
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SAM
Jonathan WaldmanA true story of innovation that “reads like a movie” (Seth Godin), centered on a scrappy team of engineersfar from the Silicon Valley limelightand their quest to revolutionize the ...
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Thriving with Microbes
Sputnik FuturesFrom the remarkable minds of Sputnik Futures, this visually engaging exploration of the microbes that surround us and how these unseen powerhouses are shaping our future is perfect...
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Quarantine Life from Cholera to COVID-19
Kari NixonFor readers of Mary Roach and Jared Diamond, an innovative look at the histories of different epidemics and what it meant for society, alongside what lessons different diseases hav...
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Butts
Heather Radke“Winning, cheeky, and illuminating….What appears initially as a folly with a lookatthis cover and title becomes, thanks to Radke’s intelligence and curiosity, something much meatie...
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Evolution Gone Wrong
Alex Bezzerides“An unforgettable journey through this twisted miracle of evolution we call ‘our body.’” Spike Carlsen, author of A Walk Around the BlockFrom blurry vision to crooked teeth, A...
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Consider the Platypus
Maggie Ryan Sandford & Rodica PratoFINALIST FOR THE 2020 GENERAL NONFICTION MINNESOTA BOOK AWARDSInterested in the origins of the species? Consider the Platypus uses pets such as dogs and cats as well as animal outl...
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Grass Roots
Emily DuftonHow earnest hippies, frightened parents, suffering patients, and other ordinary Americans went to war over marijuana In the last five years, eight states have legalized recreationa...
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Everyday Amazing
Beatrice the BiologistLike fan mail addressed to the natural world, Everyday Amazing is filled with uplifting and interesting musings on science from Beatrice the Biologist. Beatrice the Biologist is an...
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All That Remains
Sue BlackBook of the Year, 2018 Saltire Literary AwardsA CrimeReads Best True Crime Book of the MonthFor fans of Caitlin Doughty, Mary Roach, Kathy Reichs, and CSI shows, a renowned forensi...
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The Education of a Coroner
John BatesonAn “entertaining” (Booklist) account of the mysterious, hairraising, and heartbreaking cases handled by the coroner of Marin County, California throughout his four decades on the j...
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Signs of Murder
David WilsonFrom the UK's leading criminologist comes the true story of Margaret McLaughlin, and the man he believes was fitted up for her murder 'Enthralling ... will leave true crime readers...
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Still As Bright
Christopher CokinosAn immersive exploration of the nightly presence that has captured our imagination for the entirety of human history."When the Moon rises between buildings or over trees, it’s not ...
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Rest in Pieces
Bess LovejoyA “marvelously macabre” (Kirkus Reviews) history of the bizarre afterlives of corpses of the celebrated and notorious dead.For some of the most influential figures in history, deat...
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Bite
Bill SchuttFrom threeinch fang blennies to thirtyfoot prehistoric crocodiles, from gaboon vipers to Neanderthals, Bite is a fascinating journey through the natural, scientific, and cultural h...
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The Boy Who Felt Too Much
Lorenz Wagner & Leon Dische BeckerAn International Bestseller, the Story behind Henry Markram’s Breakthrough Theory about Autism, and How a Family’s Unconditional Love Led to a Scientific Paradigm Shift Henry Markr...
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Pipe Dreams
Chelsea WaldFinalist for the 2022 NASW Science in Society Journalism Award Longlisted for the 2022 AAAS/Subaru SB&F Prize for Excellence in Science BooksFrom an awardwinning science journa...
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Life as a Casketeer
Francis Tipene & Kaiora TipeneStars of the hit television series The Casketeers, as seen on NetflixFrancis and Kaiora Tipene aren't your typical funeral directors. With their famous humour and bighearted person...
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Influenza
Jeremy Brown“Highlights that influenza is still a real and present threat and demonstrates the power and limitations of modern medicine.” The Wall Street Journal“A surprisingly compelling and ...
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The Witching Year
Diana HelmuthA skeptic spends a year trying to find spiritual fulfillment by practicing modern Witchcraft in this fascinating memoir that’s perfect for fans of A.J. Jacobs and Mary Roach.Diana ...
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The Seven Ages of Death
Dr Richard ShepherdThe heartwrenchingly honest new book about life and death from forensic pathologist and bestselling author of UNNATURAL CAUSES, Dr Richard ShepherdA TIMES AND SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF ...
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Summary of Grunt
InstareadSummary of Grunt by Mary Roach | Includes Analysis Preview: Mary Roach’s Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans At War examines technological and medical research in th...
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Written in Bone
Sue BlackWinner of the Crime Writers’ Association ALCS Gold Dagger for Nonfiction A tour through the human skeleton and the secrets our bones reveal, from the author of All That R...
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Healing a Divided Nation
Carole AdrienneA profound and insightful investigation into how the American Civil War transformed modern medicine.At the start of the Civil War, the medical field in America was rudimentary, uns...
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The Basis of Everything
Andrew RamseyBefore the Manhattan Project, before nuclear warfare and the horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, there was the twentieth century's great scientific quest to fathom the secrets of th...
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Wonderdog
Jules HowardA celebration of dogs, the scientists who've lived alongside them, and how canines have been key to advancements in science for the betterment of all species.Almost everywhere ther...